


Alive

by Clairvoyantkid



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Other, Romance, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 14:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15121559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clairvoyantkid/pseuds/Clairvoyantkid
Summary: Everything was easier in black and white, but there was no running from the flame I had coaxed alive. He had no choice but to acknowledge it, he could no longer ignore it, nor the fear that if I’m gone, he might once again be extinguished.





	Alive

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy!

It was a nice day outside. 

At least I assumed it must’ve been from the sound of chirping birds and the lack of wind hitting the window frames.  
I couldn’t have truly known, seeing as I’d only just opened my eyes.

The couch was warmer in that moment than any bed I’d ever slept in, a seemingly safe haven where even the cruel hand of death couldn’t touch me.  
I blinked the sleep from my lashes, the room around me slowly coming into focus. Although, it was partially obstructed by the tangles of hair that had slipped over my face.

The tall bookshelf across the floor was barely filled. The shelves seemed to contain records, perhaps of past expeditions. The table that sat in the center of the room between the couch and the bookrack was familiar enough; I’d definitely sat at it before.  
Yes it was indeed a nice day, I concluded to myself when my eyelids fluttered under the harsh streams of dusty sunlight cascading through the one window on the adjacent wall.  
It was then I remembered belatedly where I was, as I heard the couch beneath me take a long sigh and felt the fabric rise and fall more substantially.

I looked up and a gentle smile graced my lips when I was met with a familiar furrowed face.  
Levi’s expression was as absent as ever, his cheek pressed tiredly into the cushion beside him. His hair was tousled so perfectly from slumber it was almost chimerical. He hadn’t noticed I was awake yet, his eyes half-lidded in deep thought.  
I was curled up against his chest, with his back resting on the armrest. Our legs were still entangled clumsily, with his one injured calf resting above the jumble; but now his arms were tightened purposefully under my own.

We must’ve fallen asleep here last night in all the stress of all that had happened. We were unable to help or do anything substantial, confined to the safety of the indoors while our comrades were out being eaten alive. I wondered if the last time I’d seen them would really be the last time, there’s always that chance.  
I shuddered at the thought and Levi’s pinpoint gaze finally slipped down to meet mine.

“You’re awake,” his orotund voice reverberated pleasantly in my ears, cool and collected.

“So are you,” I rasped gently in response, shuffling enough so I could lift my upper body. His grip didn’t seem to waver, despite his softening expression. “How long have you been up?” I asked.

“Since before the sunrise,” he stated calmly, his distant stare shifting slowly to the stretch of light cascading over the floorboards beside us. I pursed my lips helplessly, knowing that it was pointless to comment on his perpetual sleeplessness.

“Are you feeling ok?” I felt his fingertips pressing more firmly into my ribs as I spoke, the tips of his nails close to leaving marks through the material of my dress shirt.

“Why do you ask?” Levi huffed sharply.

“Because it feels like you’re trying to crush me,” I laughed, smile widening playfully through an obviously pained wince.

Levi’s jaw dropped a little in response and I could see recognition flash through his once glassy eyes. He instantly released his hold on me, his palms sliding familiarly down my sides to rest on the swell of my hips.

  
“Sorry, I got distracted,” he grunted a ruffled apology, now making it a blatant point to avoid my line of sight.

“Obviously, but by what?” I snorted back, to Levi’s aggravated dismay, but he seemed willing to comply either way.  
Levi really wasn’t somebody you wanted to pry at; you had just as much of a chance of being ignored as you did of being kicked. Fortunately enough for me, I considered myself close enough to him to know he wouldn’t dare lay a hand on me. I didn’t know anyone who he’d let inside his head more than me.

“You should already know,” he mumbled, clearing his throat in discomfort as he bent and unbent his injured appendage to prove his point.

“It’s not your fault,” I said soothingly, pushing myself forward on my elbow so I could brush his silky ebony bangs aside and cup his cheek.

“I feel pointless just laying here, I should be out helping,” Levi grumbled, but surrendered his head into my palm all the same. I watched with tantalized infatuation as he lifted an arm off my waist to push my hand against his mouth with his own. He pressed a few slow chaste kisses to the skin there.

“Yeah, you’d last maybe five minutes with that leg,” I giggled, thumbing his bottom lip tenderly. Levi glared a ferociously famous scowl back at me, the enamel of his teeth brushing at my fingertip threateningly.

“I think I’d make it a full ten, maybe twenty if I used you as Titan fodder,” Levi growled, staying as stoic as ever but making it a point to roguishly clack his bared teeth at me.

“That’s too far, Levi!” I gasped, pushing his head away from me at the joint of his throat. He almost smiled, instead filling the void of his admiration for my mannerisms with another dilatory peck to my temple, my cheek and then to my jaw. I let my fingers wander the stretch of his neck, his slow controlled pulse thrumming under my touch. His breath began to tickle me as he wandered lower and I leaned away from him with cheeks rosy from his ministrations. “Hey! I said too far,” I tittered, simper contradicting my words.

“I’d go insane inside this building if you weren’t here right now,” Levi confessed to me with a sigh.

“I don’t fight without you,” I reminded him sternly. My words shook the dust from my memories and brought me back to a day not so long ago. A day when perhaps I too, could’ve met my end in the clutches of giant jaws. All those lives lost and perhaps it had been the one day I’d finally seen pure relief etched into the features of Levi’s face. He’d spoken with such conviction, such fearful truth, a promise on his tongue that begged to be reciprocated. “If we live, we live together, if we die, we die together. Understand?” I would never betray such an intimate request from Levi.

“Ah, you’re just too much for me,” Levi rasped, a rare enamored smirk finally on his lips as his gentle fingers began to playfully prod under the hem of my shirt. His thumbs traced the outline of my hipbones as he spoke.

“That’s my purpose,” I teased as I threaded my hand into his unkempt coiffure, reveling in the feeling of his touch.

“I’m well aware,” Levi murmured back, his lips parting almost desperately when I gingerly drew my nails along the back of his neck.

”What? No snide sarcastic comment?” I chuckled, slowly raising myself up into his touch and inching forward as I spoke. Lifting a leg seamlessly over his thigh, I let my haunches come to rest upon his waist, my limbs parted by the tepid body between them.

“I’m too tired to pretend I’m annoyed by you,” Levi muttered into the curve of my shoulder as he shuffled comfortably to accommodate me. I soundlessly allowed him to creep up the dunes of my torso under my shirt, massaging at the skin as he went. His extremities were impossibly soft, drawing out the last hints of tension from my muscles.

I grinned pleasantly, allowing his summery breath to fan over my throat. His hands suddenly retreated out from where they’d been exploring to the front of my shirt, as if met with an abrupt and enticing thought that needed their immediate attention. He fidgeted with the buttons languidly for a moment until a thought of my own itched at the back of my mind.

“Hey Levi, is the leg the only thing that’s bothering you?” I asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt wherever that was leading, but knowing Levi would use it as an excuse to avoid his feelings.

He was silent for a moment longer than he would’ve liked to have been, betraying himself to me. His movements had stilled as he leaned back, eyes narrowed resolutely into space. I stared down at him, still and patient.

“What if one day... I lose this battle,” Levi’s gaze snapped up to my own, a mysterious fanatical plead captured in two black pools of darkness. “And I can’t be there to protect you?” His words were stolid and hesitant and his voice sounded surprisingly brittle.

I blinked the slowest, most thoughtful, Indescribably painful blink as I attempted to process his words, running them over my tongue. “I don’t need protection, Levi. I’m no beginner at this life.” I sighed.

The lofty set of his jaw, which I had come to know, was now a full on exercise in just how peremptory the tilt of his chin could be. “Ah, you’re not listening again,” Levi chuckled incredulously, that classic irritability evident in his tone.

“Again?” I frowned in confusion.

“You never hear me. You’re a million miles away in there,” Levi griped, biting violently into his bottom lip as if by doing so he could choke down whatever outburst he was trying to avoid. “I have to, Anny. I have to keep you safe.” His trembling knuckles were clenched so tight they began to whiten.

“Levi,” I started, raising my arms until I’d bracketed his cheeks between my paws. His helpless, crinkled stare was forced to direct itself onto me. “We do our very best, but sometimes it's just not good enough. We try to be safe. We try so hard to protect ourselves, but it doesn't make a damn difference. Cause when the bad things come, they come out of nowhere.”

Rather startled, and annoyed at that unfortunate fact, Levi studied my features with a frown, drinking them in perhaps, memorizing them in frightened prediction. He continued for another moment, his eyes flicking over my unrelenting expression in brief assessment before turning back to his lap, my hands still clutching his face.

“You’re too smart for your own good,” Levi said carefully, in as noncommittal a tone as possible. He tried to look up again, but his resolve had been fractured, and his words began to trail. “It seems you’re always running off somewhere without me.” Levi had an unspoken excuse in that moment, of finding it more comfortable to move his mouth as little as possible. Everything was easier in black and white, but there was no running from the flame I had coaxed alive. He had no choice but to acknowledge it, he could no longer ignore it, nor the fear that if I’m gone, he might once again be extinguished.

“I’m not going anywhere. Right now, I’m right here,” I urged, hastily relinquishing my hold on him to grasp at his tensed limb, bringing it quickly to my chest, spreading his fingers out so he could feel the tempo of my heartbeat under the skin. “I’m alive,” I said, my voice rich like warm milk or fresh honey.

Levi clenched his fist where I held it, his messy bangs hanging like a makeshift shield over his fluttering lashes. I watched him take in a stuttering breath, a deep familiar fortitude restored in him.

  
“Yes... you are,” he whispered conclusively, a dedicated promise weaved into every syllable. With each breath, his pulse seemed to sync to my own.

“So you better stay alive.”

 

 

 


End file.
